


Twenty Minutes of Awkward Silence

by marizousbooty



Series: Twenty Minutes [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Overuse of italics, explicit hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2019-02-01 15:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12707727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marizousbooty/pseuds/marizousbooty
Summary: Keith needs help studying for an English midterm and Pidge knows exactly who can help.





	Twenty Minutes of Awkward Silence

**Author's Note:**

> I noticed each one shot gets longer and longer but thats mostly due to my inconsistency in writing and getting more comfortable with it. big shout out to alli for looking over this for me I'm bad at grammar and for the comment "I will die for you" on the last story.

“How likely will I get out of this exam if I throw myself off a bridge?” Keith sighed.

“If you give your professor a heads up you’re gonna attempt suicide. She’ll probably give you a couple days extension.” Pidge didn’t even look up from her textbook. “I heard she’s nice.”

“Yeah, she’s nice, but I have to read almost whole novels before every class on top of all the short stories and poems and a reading exercise. Who does she think I am, an English major?”

“This is a class aimed towards English majors, so, yeah, it’s right to assume so.”

Keith huffed. “I’m interested in American Lit. I was hoping we would go over Edgar Allen Poe, but he’s not even on the syllabus at all and I’m already too far in to drop the class.”

“Woe is me, my class doesn’t provide my emo poetry,” Pidge mocked, voice rising a little over a whisper. The guy sitting at the table next to them threw a dirty look their way over their ceaseless chatter, or really, aggressive whispering.

“Please let me live. I just really like _The Raven_. And I thought it would be a _fun_ class, but this is the least fun I’ve had in my academic career.” Keith slumped over the table and rested on the open pages of the thick, bible-paged textbook.

There was a few moments of silence between the two, where Pidge focused on writing down some equations from her book and Keith kept sighing despondently into the abused book.

“Stop sighing and get a tutor,” Pidge snapped. “I have a midterm in two hours and my study guide isn’t even done.”

“I don’t know anyone in class and I don’t have money to buy one,” Keith groaned.

“Ask Lance,” she said simply.

Keith bolted upright from his textbook pillow. “ _What?”_

 _“_ Ask Lance.” She finally looked up from her notes. “It’s his minor. He probably already took the class and has old notes he could give you.”

Keith’s mouth went dry. “Isn’t - isn’t Allura and English major? Wouldn’t it be easier to ask her?”

Pidge smirked. “Oh, you _could_ , but she’s busy working on university applications on top of her midterms. Besides, I’m pretty sure she took World Lit instead, so she wouldn’t be able to help you.”

Keith bit his lip and absently flipped through the Bible-thin pages, the sides weighed down with numerous note tabs and crinkled at the tops. He didn’t want to look at her, would rather be looking at this specific chapter of _Huckleberry Finn._

 _“_ He doesn’t bite dude.” Pidge reaches across the table and touched his hand. “Lance is a seriously sweet guy. Like, I know everyone’s he’s dated up to this point were all stupid to break up with him. He’s so dang sweet and considerate with them. If anyone deserves a guy like Lance, it’s you, okay?” Keith looked up and met her stern gaze. “I really think you should tell him how you feel. It’s stressing you out so much you’re scared to ask for help. And maybe, if he rejects you, it would help clear the air. Yeah, it’ll be awkward for a bit, but trust me, you’ll feel better.”

“When did you get smart on people’s feelings?” Keith snorted.

Pidge pulled back her hand with an anguished look on her face. “I may suck at emotions, but I’m clearly better than your pining ass if you need advice from me.”

“Didn’t ask for it. You freely gave it.”

“You looked so pathetic, I needed to do something. You didn’t say it, but your puppy dog eyes and depressive sighs said you did.”

“Um, thanks, I guess,” Keith said and looked back down at his book.

“No problem. Now text him because when’s this test?” Pidge cupped her hand over her ear and leaned foreward.

“In two days . . .”

“Yeah . . . text him. You need help.” Pidge slammed her book shut and started gathering her stuff.

Keith pulled out his phone and nervously typed out a message, erased it, then typed out a new one. It took him probably a good five minutes too long to type it out. He handed his phone over to Pidge, who was standing over him like a hawk and watching his progress, to double check if it was okay. Without even pausing to look she hit send.

“What was that for! I needed you to proofread it!” Keith snatched the phone from her hands, who was too busy cackling to actually stop him.

“Dude it’s a simple ‘I need help studying for English can you help me?’ Not a _confession!_ Jesus, oh my God, Keith.” She snorted.

Before Keith could give her a retort, his phone vibrated and startled him enough to fumble with the phone for a second. His hands were so clammy he had to swipe a couple times to actually open up the text message.

 **Me**  
Today 10:43AM  
Hey I’m not doing too  
 hot in my English class  
 right now but Pidge told  
me it’s your minor and  
you probably took the  
class already would you  
 be able to help me  
 study? The exams on  
 Thursday.

 **Lance**  
Today 10:44AM  
Ya sure what English is  
 it so I can find my  
notes?  
**Today 10:45AM**  
& we can do it tonight?

Keith sucked in a breath. “Tonight?”

Pidge frowned. “Why are you asking me for permission? You’re a big boy now.”

“I’m scared?”

“Text him, ya goof! Now I gotta run to class. Stay safe and make good choices.” Pidge waved and she was gone. Keith gave a solemn wave and turned back to his phone.

 **Me**  
Today 10:47AM  
American Lit 241 with  
 Corey this class is a  
 mistake but I already  
put too much work in it.  
And tonight works.

 **Lance**  
Today 10:47AM  
OH I LOVE HER I LOVE  
241 YES I CAN HELP U  
MY PLACE OR URS  
OR LIKE A STARBUCKS  
MY DUDE? A LIBRARY?  
A LIBRARY MIGHT BE BAD

 **Me**  
Today 10:48AM  
Would my place work?  
Shiro’s out and from  
what you told me your  
roommates lowkey scare me.  
Is 4 ok?

 **Lance**  
Today 10:48AM  
I get off class @ 4:15 so  
 4:30ish?

 **Lance**  
Today 10:49AM  
I’ll find all my old notes  
and study guides  & I’ll  
bring some guac

Keith smiled and tucked his phone away so he could at least pretend he was reading. It was a little difficult with that weird fluttering in his chest and trying to contain the smile on his face. He couldn’t help it! He was going to have his first date with Lance! Well, no, this wasn’t technically a date, but this would be the first time they’ll be hanging out by themselves in the few months they’ve known each that’s actually planned ahead and not them running into each other in the courtyard or library. No one was bound to run into them, too. And best of all, Shiro’s gone for the night to a concert in the next city over with Matt and Allura.

Maybe Pidge is right, this is the perfect time to tell him how he feels. But maybe after they get some studying done to avoid any awkwardness that Keith is sure to bring.

Tonight couldn’t come fast enough.

Scratch that thought. By the time four came around Keith was _stressed out_.

At exactly 4:19, a knock rang through Keith’s little apartment. He sat there for a few moments trying to wipe the sweat off his palms and work up the courage to stand up. At 4:20, he stood outside the door with a hand hovering over the doorknob, that damn fluttering in his chest and belly kicked into overdrive. It was hard to breath with what felt like his lungs were full of beating wings.

At 4:21 he opened the apartment door to Lance’s near blinding grin.

“420 blaze it,” he said.

“It’s passed 4:20 you missed it,” Keith huffed and stepped aside to let him in.

“It’s your fault for taking so long to open the door,” Lance frowned and kicked off his shoes next to where Keith and Shiro had theirs neatly lined in the shoe rack by the door. “You ruined my joke, mullet.”

“Mullet?” Keith had instinctively went to touch the ends of the hair curled around his neck.

“Yeah, business in the front and party in the back. Although,” Lance reached up and caught a lock between his fingers. “You’re more like angry in the front scary in the back.”

Keith had locked up at the brush of fingertips to his hair but immediately melted at that comment. He frowned and said, “Shut up.”

Lance snorted and came fully into the apartment. “I have the guac but sadly, I don’t have the good tortilla chips. Just some generic party brand.”

“I’m not picky.” Keith took the tupperware full of the delicious, green goop and chips from him and put it on the ottoman tray where two textbooks, a handful of of pens, a notebook, and a half empty mug of coffee were already strewn across it.

“Alright so,” Lance plopped down in the couch and started rifling through the notes, ”if the test is in two days, and this is all your notes, then I’m really scared for you.”

Hesitantly, Keith took a seat as close as he could next to Lance so he could still reach the notes but left several inches of space between them. God, did hearts normally beat this fast? “I need so much help. I’m not even gonna pretend that I know what I’m doing.”

“Well,” Lance paused to eat a chip heaped with guacamole, “you need to know who wrote what and generally when, so that’s a start. Take notes on general information like a summary along with maybe like a little factoid about the author and the time period. Then, basic things like literary elements, themes, and characters. After that, we can go over discussion questions to help you get a better idea of what you’re doing.”

“What the fuck,” Keith whispered.

“Don’t worry,” Lance patted his arm. “Corey likes to hype you up and over-prepare you, but once you sit down, the exam’s like, ten questions, and only four of them are long answer.”

“Do you see all these tabs I have in here?! I have two days to learn all this!” Keith could feel the rising panic bubbling in this chest. It overpowered those beating wings.

“Hey, hey calm down, it’s alright.” Lance turned in his seat to run his hand up and down Keith’s back in a soothing gesture. “Yeah, it’s scary, but trust me it’s all the hype. We can cut down on a lot of the reading. You don’t need to know every single poem. Just breath, it’ll be okay.”

Keith took a steadying breath then finally nodded. “Okay. Where do we start?”

Lance reached into the backpack he brought and pulled out his laptop and two of his own copies of the textbooks. They were worn down and had probably twice as many tabs in it as Keith’s did. “Sparknotes,” he simply said.

“Why? I- I thought we couldn’t?” Keith felt like Lance just slapped him with some forbidden knowledge.

“Professors hate it when we cheat with Sparknotes, but I’m taking sixteen units this semester, so I’m allowed a break. Hand me your reading list. Let’s write down what we need to focus on first before we can write up a study guide. Then, after that, we can go over it.” Lance cracked open his worn book to one of the tabbed pages; the thin paper bled in a rainbow of pens and highlighters. There was almost as much text scribbled in the margins as there were in the text itself.

Keith gave a hum in acknowledgment and passed the reading list to Lance.

Much to Keith’s surprise, Lance was very no-nonsense when he came to studying. He helped Keith outline everything he needed to know, then pulled up Google, Sparknotes, and even his own notes (which, Keith noted, where near illegible) to go through every bit of information Lance believed he would need. It was tedious work going through a few dozen short stories and poems in great detail, but he would admit that this was actually fun. Lance kept the mood light and easy, but best of all, his endless stream of commentary actually felt like it helped Keith learn the material better. At first, Keith thought Lance was goofing off, but later realized in Lance’s own roundabout way this was helping the material stick, like:

“If you really think about it  _Luck of Roaring Camp_ is basically like a family can be fifty dads, a dead prostitute as the mother, and a singular baby they still somehow managed to kill. There’s fifty of them, Keith. _Fifty._ ”

“Jim is perfect and doesn’t deserve any of this mistreatment. Huck? Yeah, he was a dick but he was actually getting character development until Tom Sawyer shows up and decides to ruin everything for the _drama_. God I hate Tom, that racist asshole. Why does he get a whole attraction at Disneyland and not Jim? Jim deserves an island.”

“I didn’t actually read _Law of Life_ but it’s Jack London. It probably has something to do with nature and death, maybe socialism, too.”

“Hey, Lance?” Keith cut through one of their rare moments of silence. Lance grunted to cue Keith to keep talking. “You’re. . . really good at this. Like, you obviously love these classes, so why isn’t this a major?”

Lance put down the book he had buried his nose and gave a thoughtful hum before he turned to face Keith. “I’m passionate about English but this is something that’s more of a hobby than anything. But I can’t have three majors, I already tried it for like a semester and decided that it wasn’t worth it so I bumped it down to a minor. Linguistics and education are tough but I really want to take up a teaching job after college and teach kids languages. Maybe I’ll go back to school to get a full bachelors in English one day, who knows.”

“What language would you teach?”

“Spanish, probably. Or even Spanish to English. I know French and I’m learning ASL right now for the heck of it but I just really love learning new languages. After my ASL courses I’m gonna pick up either Korean or Japanese I haven’t decided yet. Oops, sorry,” Lance said as he jerked back, a dark hue coloring his face. “I got off topic a bit.”

“No, no it’s fine!” Was keith flapping his hands around again like an _idiot_? He was, wasn’t he. “I like listening to you talk. It’s nice.” He wanted to physically kick his own ass for letting that slip now.

“Oh, um, thanks.” Lance’s cheeks flushed darker and he turned away.

“Let’s uh, get back to work.” Keith slid the textbook closer to him and attempted to bury his face into the thin, ink soaked pages.

The silence that followed was the thickest, most awkward twenty minutes of his life. Keith couldn’t focus on the scribbled over text and his notes. Instead, he kept side eyeing Lance and the clock. He hated this. Lance was zeroed in on his laptop screen, lounged across the little loveseat like it was his own place. It was impossible to tell if he could feel the tension too between them, or if Keith imagined it on his own. He should just. . . break the silence and tell him. This is too much, the silence too thick and cloying. The weird fluttering in his chest had settled heavily in his gut, pounding harshly against his insides. Sweat had coated the inside of Keith’s hands and was it him or was it getting hotter and harder to breath in here?

Pidge told him it would be ideal to clear the air with Lance to at least get this off his chest. Of course, she’s right. Keith felt like once he told Lance he would feel so much better but he didn’t want to ruin this friendship they’ve developed and make it awkward. Like now, he thought bitterly. It’s hard for him to make new friends being as socially inept as he was. Lance is one of the few friendships he managed to make by himself without Shiro’s meddling and he’ll be damned if he ruined it over a stupid, gay crush.

But on the other hand, he needed to stop psyching himself out and give himself a solid _do it, Kogane_ because he knows Lance is a sweet guy. He would never hurt him or intentionally push him away.

Before he could scare himself with more uncharacteristic inner monologuing, Keith decided he needed to shape the fuck up and tell this boy how he feels.

He took a deep steadying breath, put down the textbook in his lap, and turned to face Lance fully. “Hey,” he said softly.

Lance looked up from his laptop, his glazed over eyes snapped to attention. “What up?”

 _Do it, Kogane_. “I like you.”

If Lance hadn’t been paying attention before he certainly is now. A crease formed between his brows and his mouth opened like a fish.

“I like you a lot, like, more than a friend? And uh, if you don’t feel the same way that’s fine I can get over it I just don’t want to mess us up, you know? And if-”

“Hey Keith?” Lance cut off his rambling. “I like you, too.”

“No, no! Lance, I _really_ like you, like, I want to date you and hold your hand and stuff kind of like!”

Lance giggled, Keith felt his heart do a backflip. “Keith, I want to date you too.”

“You do?” Keith’s heart kept doing backflips but straight out of his chest.

“I do.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. I want to hold your hand and be your boyfriend and stuff.”

Now it was Keith’s turn to gape like a fish. He could feel his cheeks getting hot under Lance’s gaze but he didn’t care at all because Lance wanted to hold his hand too. “Can we,” Keith hesitated. “Can we hold hands and be boyfriends now?”

The grin that split across Lance’s flushed face made Keith’s heart levitate. That deep, heavy feeling in his gut was gone. Keith tentatively reached over the loveseat where Lance reached out his own hand to meet in the middle. They gently held hands without interlacing their fingers; neither wanting to squeeze too hard, scared it would pop this little bubble of happiness they made.

This warmth Keith felt in his chest was overwhelming. He wasn’t complaining though, it felt wonderful. Lance was his _boyfriend_ now.

Lance was the first to pop the comfortable bubble around them. “Hey, you started the explication paper, too, right? The one that’s due at midnight the same day as the midterm, I’m guessing?”

Keith froze. “The what?”

“You know, the six page minimum poetry explication with six academic sources that counts for a good 20% of your grade?”

Keith leaned away from Lance, then pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned loudly.

“You forgot, didn’t you?” Lance whispered, almost fearfully.

“ _I forgot the paper!_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> um so "professor corey" is based off an actual professor and an actual class I took last fall it's really hard but i really love her and the class. and uh yeah she had us study like mad for this midterm with a paper due at midnight on like a singular poem, 6 pages minimum and at least 6 academic sources but most of the poems we could choose were so lowkey they didn't have anything on them in the library bye  
> main tumblr: canadiangothstalker  
> art tumblr: mirai-eats  
> twitter: mirai_eats


End file.
